No SpelHouse Homecoming--Again
The Friday Flashpoints
Nobody asked me but…
So, I'm not in the best of moods this Friday as the reality hits that for the second straight year, that I will not be in attendance for SpelHouse (Morehouse-Spelman) Homecoming. I truly thought that this would be a one off last year and that after a full year of vaccinations and safety precautions, that a return to normalcy would ensue at 830 Westview Drive, S.W. in Atlanta.
But nope, there are still millions of Americans talking that crazy talk about needing "to do more research" about the vaccine, as if these folks who made c's, d's, and f's in their biology and chemistry classes in high school really have the capacity to research above and beyond what the top medical researchers and providers have already researched this year?
So nope, so long as Covid in all of its Delta or Mu forms is lurking out there, Hobbs and the Florida Boyz will not be able to party with our Morehouse Brothers and all of our Delta (HK Chapter) and Mu Pi AKA friends, among others, at our annual reunion that serves as a soul recharging for all!
Now, I have no idea who the Men of Morehouse are playing this weekend and to be perfectly honest, I haven't actually been inside of a football game on campus since my final year in school in 1993…or was it junior year in '92? Who knows, but what I do know is that I will miss my closest friends, Frat and Masonic Brothers, and fellow AUC alumni that usually pack the campus to the tune of 20,000 plus amid the smells of good food, fine spirits, and the best cigars (and whatnot) that money can buy.
Thus, my sincere prayer for the health and safety of all of the above in hopes of reuniting and reminiscing anew in 2022 and until then, I end this segment with three collages of days of yore…on the Yard…pre-Covid:
***Kudos once more to the NCAA, which announced earlier today that its Standardized Test Score Task Force has recommended the elimination of the standardized test score requirement for student-athletes transitioning from high school to a Division I or II college or university!
Morgan State President David Wilson, head of the task force, said:"This work reflects the NCAA's commitment to continually reviewing our academic standards based on the best available data and other relevant information. We are observing a national trend in NCAA member schools moving away from requiring standardized test scores for admissions purposes and this recommendation for athletics eligibility aligns directly with that movement."
Now, Ol’ Hobbs has never been a strong proponent of mandatory standardized test scores for one major reason—systemic racism. What often goes unmentioned is that the SAT didn't start becoming mandatory in most predominantly white colleges and universities until the decade before World War II, which was around the same time that the NAACP Legal Defense fund, then under the leadership of legendary Howard University Law Dean Charles Hamilton Houston, began attacking segregation in the courts; the ACT didn't begin until 1959, about five years before the Jim Crow era ended with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Further, you may (or may not) have known that in America's very recent past, that would-be lawyers didn't have to sit for a Bar examination to practice their desired craft. Or, that some states did not create mandatory bar association membership until the late 1940s and early 1950s—around the same time that, you probably guessed it, Blacks started seeking to be lawyers In greater numbers.
Understanding this history, I think it's wise to eliminate standardized testing altogether because "aptitude" is objective only in higher level mathematics. On this point, years ago, Tampa Bay Buccaneers Hall of Fame defensive tackle Warren Sapp noted in an interview that he had to sit out his first year at the University of Miami due to his low test scores despite having decent high school grades. Sapp highlighted the culturally biased subjectivity in non-math subjects by stating that in high school, that he had no idea what a "lanai" was, but if you had asked him what was a "porch," he would have understood that easily! Humorously, Sapp says he didn't know what a lanai was until the architect had drawn several for his sprawling mansion—thus, my kudos to the NCAA for being on the verge of eliminating one more vestige of systemic racial bias in America.
***As I note quite often, there are some prodigiously ignorant conservatives deep in the heart of Texas, with the latest example being the mental midgets who suggest that Texas school teachers must offer "opposing viewpoints" on the Holocaust.
Say what?!?
This “both sides” of the Holocaust nonsense is in furtherance of the wholly idiotic censorship efforts that conservative Republicans across America are propagating due to their stated aversion to "Critical Race Theory," one that in all actuality is their own aversion to the truth being told about global white supremacy. A supremacy that includes Nazi Dictator Adolf Hitler's "Master Race" theories that led to the deaths of over 10 million Jews and Roma (Gypsies) who the Third Reich deemed "sub-human."
The Washington Post reports that Gina Peddy, the executive director of curriculum and instruction for the Carroll (Texas) Independent School District, charged her district's teachers "…to remember the concepts of [House Bill] 3979,” and make sure that if you have a book on the Holocaust that you have one that has an opposing, that has other perspectives.”
Well Hell, Ms. Peddy, what other perspectives are there on the Holocaust? Surely you aren’t arguing that teachers in your district should assign materials that support Hitler's aims in eliminating not just Jews, but all non-whites across the globe?
Now, the historian in me could see where excerpts from Hitler's Mein Kampf could make for good reading to better understand the depths of his depravity and evil intentions. But the problem is that when the folks doing the educating are either slow-witted themselves, right-wing ideologues, or a combination of the two, such a mandate gives far more latitude for these ones to not only glorify evil—but to fuel the equally evil "the Holocaust never happened" lie that Neo-Nazi and Neo-Klansmen types who call themselves "Republicans" actually believe to their core.
In fact, I submit that this latest sordid attack on education is as vile as the whole "Lost Cause" theories that glorify the Confederacy as fighting for "States' Rights" instead of balancing the equation with the truth: "States' Rights to own Black Slaves and beat and kill them with impunity!"
In conclusion, my sympathy lies with all of the decent folks in Texas who are held captive by the village idiots in their state and local governments, and I charge all of the more perspicacious educators who know the truth to tell it and tell it true and, in the spirit of the American Transcendentalists who rallied for abolition and women’s rights in the 19th Century, disobey these and similar unjust laws in a civil manner.
Thank you for subscribing to the Hobbservation Point—have a wonderful weekend!
As usual🎯💯
Excellent. Take care yourself! We need you!